CHICAGO — The start to Thursday night’s game portended more of the same for struggling Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe.
And more of the same for Volpe this season is not a good thing.
Volpe, in a 1-for-37 slump entering the night, saw that extended to 1-for-38 when he reached on an error by White Sox second baseman Lenyn Sosa in the top of the second inning.
Volpe’s evening further devolved when, in the bottom of the inning, he misplayed a routine grounder by Edgar Quero. That gave him 18 errors this season, second in the majors to the 20 made by the Reds’ Elly De La Cruz.
Naturally, and befitting how Volpe’s overall year has gone, rookie righthander Will Warren issued a walk, hit a batter and allowed a two-out grand slam by Miguel Vargas that tied the score at 4-4. All four of the runs were unearned because of Volpe’s error.
Volpe, however, did not let the game get away from him. He doubled and singled in his next two at-bats and hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth to finish the game 2-for-3. He also made two nice stops in the hole in the sixth, helping Fernando Cruz to a 1-2-3 inning that helped keep the Yankees’ 6-4 lead intact en route to a 10-4 victory.
“Hopefully something to get him going,” Aaron Boone said. “And to finish it off with a quality at-bat for a sac fly for the tack-on run there, I liked that, too. After the error there in the second inning, I thought he made three kind of stellar plays. Good to see him bounce back from that. We need to get him going. Obviously, he’s such an important part of what we do, so hopefully this is something he can build on.”
One game, of course, is far too small a sample size to make declarations of any kind regarding Volpe, who has regressed on both sides of the ball in his third season in the big leagues. He entered Friday hitting .207 with a .271 on-base percentage, far too low for a player with his speed.
Volpe does have 18 homers, 16 stolen bases and 66 RBIs — more than respectable totals — but those numbers don’t come close to mitigating the consistent struggles he’s had offensively and defensively. In the last couple of weeks, those struggles have made him the focal point of much of the fan base’s ire when it comes to the Yankees’ up-and-down play this season. (They did enter Friday having taken advantage of a soft schedule by winning 12 of 16.)
“It’s obviously frustrating because at the end of the day, you want to get results and help the team, and you’re not doing that,” Volpe said of what the last several weeks have been like for him, a stretch that has included hearing loud booing at Yankee Stadium. “It’s frustrating, but at the same time, I felt close and in a good spot and I felt like I was taking some good swings. So it’s a balance.”
Volpe was not in the starting lineup on Sunday and Monday — Boone called it an opportunity to give the shortstop a chance for a “reset” — but it is clear that barring the unforeseen, the Yankees plan to stick with him as an everyday player.
Speaking late Thursday, Boone said he liked how Volpe quickly turned around what could have been another horrible night.
“You gotta keep playing,” he said. “I feel like he’s always kind of done that, and I think it’s an important trait to have in our business. You better be able to get past some failures or some mistakes or this game will sink you.”
The degree to which the Yankees sink or swim with Volpe in 2025, of course, is to be determined.
Judge still throwing
Aaron Judge, who has been exclusively a DH since returning from the injured list after missing 10 games with a flexor strain in his right elbow, started throwing to bases on Sunday and has been doing so all week, including before Friday night’s game. Boone reiterated Friday that there still is no timeframe for when Judge, who has a .222/.398/.431 slash line with four homers in 21 games since coming off the IL on Aug. 5, will resume playing in the field. Giancarlo Stanton, slashing .345/.408/.805 with 16 homers and 39 RBIs in his last 36 games entering Friday, started in rightfield for a second straight night.
Erik Boland started in Newsday’s sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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